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LAS CRUCES PUBLIC SCHOOLS

School board votes to rename Oñate High School

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The Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously at its Aug. 4 meeting to rename Oñate High School Organ Mountain High School. The name change will be effective with the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, LCPS Public Information Officer Kelly Jameson said.

“In the midst of our nation’s civil unrest and historical racial awakening I am very inspired by our younger generations,” said LCPS Board of Education President Terrie Dallman. “I appreciate our students’ activism and civil involvement in our community, and I encourage them to continue practicing their right for peaceful assembly. Possibly even consider serving our community, state and/or nation someday. Change is incredibly challenging, but now is the time to examine and reflect on our intentional or unintentional injustices, specifically glorification of conquistadores that trampled on indigenous population. I am hopeful that our students and community will begin to heal and reunite in the spirit for positive change,” said Dallman, a bilingual teacher for 17 years before retiring in 2015. She was elected to the school board in 2017.

LCPS Board President “This was a hard decision to make, but we did not want to go back,” said LCPS Board Vice President Maria Flores, a retired teacher who was elected to the school board in 2009 and is its senior member. “We knew that this change was hard for some. We needed to move forward to allow the healing to begin, requested by Mr. Schapekahm, the principal. The goal was to move away from a violent history, to decolonize our school and make it culturally appropriate.”  

Don Juan de Oñate (1550-1626), for who the school was named, was the first Spanish governor of New Mexico (1598-1606). An explorer and conquistador, led colonists north from Mexico into what would become the state of New Mexico in 1598, establishing the first European settlements in the Southwest.

Oñate is remembered for the Acoma Pueblo Massacre of 1599 in which an estimated 800-1,000 Acoma were killed. He also had Acoma warriors punished by cutting off part of one foot and putting them in servitude. The Spanish government found Oñate guilty of using excessive force against the Acomas.

Originally located at Sierra Middle School, beginning in 1988, Oñate High got its own building at 5700 Mesa Grande Drive in 1993.

The move to rename the school came at the request of community members in June, after the death of George Floyd.

Las Cruces Public Schools, Oñate High School, Organ Mountain High School

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